Eating Hot Cheetos can lead to an emergency room visit, doctors say

Wednesday

Eating too much of a popular snack food can lead to a hospital visit, doctors say.

Harlingen, Texas, TV station KGBT reports that Hot Cheetos can cause digestive issues, sometimes resulting in a trip to the emergency room.

Children, in particular, are at risk, according to doctors the station interviewed. One physician, Dr. Nelson Spinetti, says he sometimes sees as many as 15 patients in a single day with symptoms related to consuming Hot Cheetos and other spicy foods.

Common issues, according to KGBT, are abdominal pain and internal bleeding.

“You can have esophagitis. You can have gastritis. You can have duodenitis," Dr. Spinetti said. "Sometimes you can have colitis related, too, so it's all the way until we say the irritant gets out of the symptom after pooping.”

Dr. Spinetti, a pediatric gastroenterologist in Edinburg, Texas, says Hot Cheetos can cause endorphins to be released, which can become addictive.

“If you have an irritation or any type of pain, then you start to develop hormones to control pain that we call endorphins that become addictive, too,” he told KGBT.

Another physician, Dr. Debasish Bandyopadhyay with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, told the TV station that Hot Cheetos and other spicy foods lead to an increase in stomach acid. That's why she suggests eating them only sparingly.

“Maybe once in a month, twice in a month you are good, but don't take too much,” she said.